text: His main current research areas include: (i) bacterial cell-volume regulation: elucidation of the homeostatic mechanisms that control the physicochemistry of the cell; (ii) building of synthetic cells: construction of functional out-of-equilibrium systems for metabolic energy conservation and development of cell volume regulatory networks. What tasks should a living cell minimally perform and how this can be accomplished with a minimal set of components? and (iii) the molecular mechanisms of membrane transport proteins: understanding the dynamics, energetics and mechanisms of solute transporters in the plasma membrane.